I'm attending my first ever Minnesota Library Association Convention today. I try to behave myself, but I feel pretty much the same about being crammed into a building full of librarians as you do. Holy Sheet, Batman.
I couldn't pass the opportunity by to see Tim Spalding from Library Thing speaking, and there is a session on 23 Things on a Stick, which made me the blogger I am today, plus a scintillating 23 Things Graduation! Aghhhh! Who could miss all that?
My cohort the Floating Lush might live blog but Internet Access costs $9.99 for the day. Yikes. (Turns out you can connect to "convention" during the day but that acess isn't available in the evening.)
I plan to bring a book (Just after Sunset by Stephen King), my Zune, and Gameboy with Hotel Dusk Room 215, The World Ends With You, and Civilization Revolution just in case there is maddening downtime.
Wish me luck!
So far so good. People at the convention Pre-Conference seem to be in good spirits. Might be just fine after all. Hotel staff are super nice and helpful. It all looks different than it has when I've been down there for science fiction conventions. Waaaay different.
The Keynote Speaker Tim Spalding of Library Thing was informative and entertaining. He showed off quite a few search features of Library Thing I wasn't aware of. I think that the Library Thing for Libraries features would add a great deal to helping people find the right book. The ability to find "similar titles" to the book you're searching would be just great for reader's advisory. Even the descriptive "clouds" can really help tell what a book is about just a bit beyond what subject headings can do. The Lush and I got to shake his hand afterward and tell him how much we liked Library Thing. Big fannish moment.
The 23 Things on a Stick session was very interesting. Four bloggers who had been making use of either individual Things or several things in their library blogs or sites talked about their experiences. I was surprised at how many people hadn't known about instant messaging systems such as Meebo. I was thinking the room was full of 23 Things Stickers, and they would have been exposed to IM during the program. Apparently, many people were new to the whole 23 Things concept. Good news for anyone wanting to work through the first set of Things--they will be leaving the site and its directions up and you can work through at your own pace.
Even better, the all new 23 Things named More 23 Things will be available January 20, 2009. More Things on a Stick will use a wiki, hosted at the charming PB Wiki site. It will be interesting to see how they use such a collaborative resource to run the next program. Registration opens January 2nd. Sticks ahoy!
I attended a session of AskMN.org a consortium of libraries that are doing statewide IM reference 24 hours per day. Actually, the after hours reference service is provided by QuestionPoint, which is part of OCLC. Two academic librarians and a public librarian discussed what types of questions they have been getting, and what they feel is successful about the program. A gentleman from Minitex stood up at the end and invited more libraries to join the consortium. Its sounds like good program that has the potential to broaden IM Reference services.
Finally the 23 Things "Graduation" which turned out to be a party near the pool complete with snacks and ice cream on a stick.
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